^^^cool **** man but pack a lunch!

 

Thanks so much bmx! Wizard of Oz! lol...it never occured to me, but ya. That pretty much sums him up. I have seen Cosmo's bike and read through his rebuild thread. Lots of good ideas from him, particularly regarding the internal wiring. Lots of good ideas from this forum, the xl forum and chop cult...a year ago I had no idea I'd be going this far with the mods. **** is addicting.

I know I've said this earlier but when I started this back in October the extent of the makeover was pretty much the fat front end, painting the engine, chopping the rear fender and powder coating the frame. I had no plan to run the harness through the frame, mount the speedo in the tank, custom the bars with internal throttle and bar end signals, switches, grips, and half the other stuff we've done. That all evolved out of discussions we've had standing there in the shop looking at it, almost all of it Ozzie's ideas. "Hey, you know, we could chop the frame and add a few degrees of rake. Wouldn't take long and it would really look cool." "Hey, you know, we could make new bars and run an internal throttle and put the switches in the clamps and build the dummy lights right into the bars." "Hey, you know, since you've gone this far we should run the wires through the frame. Nah...won't take but a few hours..." He has so many unique ideas it's impossible to refuse. I'm like a kid in a candy store..."You could really do THAT??" "Well hell, ya, let's do it!"

Before I realized it we were completely rebuilding the bike.

Oz was going to build a custom exhaust...that was one of his ideas and I was really chomping at the bit to work through that and have a really custom exhaust. But, last week I decided enough was enough. He has sooo many projects going and no time for a life. I canceled that particular project and settled on ordering a set of V&H Blackout 2 into 1 pipes. Best price was Dennis Kirk - ordered them on Monday (along with the front brake pressure switch for the brake light) and they'll be here tomorrow. The V&H Blackouts seemed to be the best fit for me...loud but not annoyingly so, good power, clean long look that puts the sound far enough to the rear so that my wife doesn't go deaf when we're 2-up. No heat shields with them and they reportedly get really hot so I'll be wrapping them in black. Not custom but I'm excited.

This will cut a lot of time out of the process and hopefully help get this thing on the road quicker. We'll be working on it tomorrow night till the wee hours. Have to get the internal throttle fixed, replace the faulty switch in the right grip and rewire the bars. Front brake. I finished and painted the levers this week, so that's done. Maybe I'll have time to wrap the pipes...lots left to do but buying the pipes will end up cutting a couple of weeks off the build. New pics this weekend. I hope.

Thanks again man.

 

Getting close man, looking good! Ever see that movie "spring, summer, fall, winter, and spring"? lol, its actually a cool film.

I have been unable to do a damn thing to my bike for a year so I get to check in with you folks that are building. Thanks for keeping me inspired!

 

Thanks UFO. Glad you're enjoying it.

 

Ok Ergo its gone from too cold to ride and now to hot to ride (I tried, 106 is miserable). You gonna get this done before the heat wave passes?

 

Ergo, you will like the 2:1. Picked mine up from Dennis Kirk almost two years ago and never looked back. They do get hot. At first, I was not a fan of wrapping the pipes. I wanted heat shields. Spoke w the guys at VH who said they were going to make them, but test groups preferred the wrapped look. So they told me to wrap-em or get used to the heat.

I considered making shields or modifying the shields from Short Shots...they look similar, but bends are different enough to not work. So I wrapped them. When I was done, I thought I was a fool for not doing it sooner.

 

I don't know Rog. I've given up trying to put a date on it.

Five hours in the shop last night. We got the bars done. Internal throttle works.


Then started in on the wiring. That's a pita. Lots of cutting and soldering and heat shrinking.


All in all not a very satisfying night in the shop. But some progress was made.

 

Thanks mad. Your sig pic was one of the reasons I decided to go with the V&H blackout. Looks killer. Got the pipes yesterday but didn't have time to do anything but take it out of the box. Wrap and install probably next weekend. Hopefully.

 

Actually, I decided to spend some time in the shop last night. Worked until about 1:30am. I wrapped the pipes and installed the big-*** mounting bracket for them. The wrap job is not the easiest to do by yourself, but not the hardest thing I've done on this build.

Never done an exhaust wrap before so I don't know if it's good or bad. It's a messy job, soaking the wrap and then working with it...black **** everywhere. I spread out some plastic on the bench, which helps contain the mess but allows everything to slip and slide while you're trying to hold it, wrap it and keep everything aligned. I used two inch wrap, mainly because that's what all the online YouTube videos said and it seemed to be the most prevelant on all the websites. It covers better than 1" (I assume) but it's a bit more difficult to work and get tight around bends and the O2 sensor ports. I used stainless steel wire to secure the ends with a special pliers that puts a nice twist in the wire. I may go back and put the stainless zip ties on it, but I'm gonna paint everything with black VHT when it's dry and the wire will probably be real hard to see after that. Might leave it that way or use the zip ties as an accent. Ok, here it is.



I don't know. Looks ok I guess. When I left everything was still wet and it's supposed to tighten up as it dries. We'll see. Took me about 2 hours to do it and I used all of one 25 foot roll and half of another to complete the job.

After I hung that up to dry I installed the mounting bracket. It went on quickly and easily.

 

Be prepared for some smoke the first use hehe...when I did the pipes on the Shovelhead I'm sure the folks behind me thought the bike was on fire stopped at a school crossing.

Thinking back, mine were still wet tho.